Sword Art Online Gets Anime

Pictures of bags that will be distributed at the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival 2011 event on Sunday have revealed that an anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara's light novel series Sword Art Online has been green-lit. The bags also reveal that Kawahara's other light novel series, Accel World, has an anime as well.

The story of Sword Art Online revolves around a genius programmer named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya who enters a virtual-reality, massively multi-player online (MMO) world called "Sword Art Online." There is no escape from this world unless the player clears the game, but "game over" means the death of the player.

Kawahara launched the light novels with illustrations by abec in 2009, and Kadokawa Group Publishing released the eighth volume in August. Tamako Nakamura has been drawing the main manga adaptation in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine since last year, and Minami-Jūjisei has been drawing the Sword Art Online. manga spinoff in the same magazine since last year also. Kadokawa's Dengeki Bunko imprint has scheduled a 2:00-2:40 p.m. event at Sunday's festival to announce new works in different forms of media.

The 2011 edition of the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! guidebook by Takarajimasha Inc. listed the top 10 light novel series. Before this weekend, nine of them have been or will be adapted into anime: Toaru Majutsu no Index, Baka to Test to Shōkanjū (Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts), Bungaku Shōjo, Seitokai no Ichizon, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (Oreimo), Durarara!!, Kami-sama no Memo-chō, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, and Ben-To. The only one without anime until now was Sword Art Online.

ASCII Media Works' official website for the anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara's light novel series Sword Art Online announced on Saturday that the two-cours (two-quarter or half-year) anime will premiere in Japan next July. Kawahara launched the light novels with illustrations by abec in 2009, and Kadokawa Group Publishing released the eighth volume in August.

The site also confirmed that the drama CD's cast members are reprising their roles for the anime. Tomohiko Ito (Occult Academy) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures with character designs by Shingo Adachi (Megaman Star Force, Wagnaria!!).

The story revolves around a boy named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya who enters a virtual-reality, massively multi-player online (MMO) world called "Sword Art Online." There is no escape from this world unless the player clears the game, but "game over" means the death of the player.